Another day, another green report. This time, in response to rising energy prices, a report has been published by something calling itself the Energy Crisis Commission. But the report flies in the face of sound economics when it tries to address the hardships faced by millions of individuals and businesses due to shy-high energy prices by calling for “a clear strategy for shifting away from fossil fuels, particularly gas”. Well, guess what: that’s because the “Commission” is just another bog-standard Green Blob front! Who could have guessed?
“A new report out today from the Energy Crisis Commission shows energy experts are backing the Labour Government’s mission for Clean Power by 2030”, tweeted Ed Milliband. Well, of course they do. For when one visits the Commission’s website, it is soon revealed that, “The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit [ECIU] is providing the secretariat for the Commission.” The ECIU is a well-connected but dysfunctional fake civil society organisation, which is wholly funded by green philanthropic outfits the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and the adjacent Meliore Foundation.
I feel that I write a lot about organisations that are wholly or mostly funded by the ECF, and it often feels that this is repetitive. But that is because most organisations active in the climate domain in the U.K. are funded by the ECF directly, or by one of the half dozen or so of the ECF’s grantor philanthropic foundations. The ECF is opaque about its sources of cash and its grantees, but it appears to be a green money-go-round – the Guardian would call it “dark money” – that puts distance between financial interests and corporate lobbying outfits styled as “civil society organisations”. What is remarkable is how many organisations that are seemingly distinct and “independent” are in fact operated under the strategic direction of their funders, whom they share accommodation with. The ECIU and the ECF are at the same “SE1 1LB” address of a virtual serviced offices – their footprints as entities being as vaporous as their output.
These aren’t real organisations; they are ghosts summoned by the will of money and ideology in some nebulous physical form to do their malign work before fading away. Green organisations – ECF grantees – have long campaigned for higher energy prices, and long attempted to distort the public discussion about how and why prices are going up, despite their false promises that renewables will be cheaper.
And so it is that the commission explains: “We consider this crisis to have started in August/September 2021, when gas prices started to rise, however the key tipping point for record prices was in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.” And I feel I am repeating myself, again, when I point out that the commission’s lazy analysis is false.
Energy traders had told me long before the Summer of 2021 that unusual price movements were signalling very high future prices. By Autumn 2021, European natural gas spot prices had reached nearly €100/MWh, way above the historical average of about €18. The immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion prompted a small spike to about €119, followed by a summer spike up to €240, which is when the ECF-funded Carbon Brief (also located at the phantom “SE1 1LB”) produced its “wind power is nine times cheaper than gas” claim. That is to say that the most significant rise occurs before the outbreak of war. This is shown more clearly when prices are viewed on a chart with a logarithmic axis, which better shows relative growth than a chart with a linear vertical axis.
In the 22 months between the slump in demand in May 2020, to the month following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, EU natural gas prices rose a staggering 2,753% – approximately 16% per month. Over the next five months to the August 2022 peak, the price rose a further 68%, at approximately equivalent to 11% per month. The evidence might just as well be made to show the converse of the commission’s claim: that the invasion in fact caused gas prices to collapse. The opposite conclusion is only obtained by misreading the linear chart, which appears to show a peak in the months following the invasion – a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. The far more significant features of the price signal occurred before the event – though Russian reduction of supply and EU sanctions following the invasion undoubtedly tightened supply and pushed prices up further.
The price then fell precipitously over the months to May 2023. Speculation may have driven some of this volatility, but the biggest elephant in the room causing the big splash of high prices in 2022 was lockdowns, or more precisely recovery from lockdowns, including the extraordinary money-printing that had financed economic torpor. Gas production capacity had been slashed during this period, and recovery put pressures on supplies. Russia is largely a scapegoat for the catastrophic impact of Western climate and Covid policy failures.
A Green Blob outfit paying Potemkin commissions to write sympathetic reports about the problem of energy price rises strikes me as analogous to a drug cartel financing rehab centres. One only need to imagine the complaints from the Green Blob if it had turned out to be a “commission” funded by gas companies which found that the solution to energy price rises was to invest more in gas production. But the difference is that increasing gas production would at least close the gap between supply and demand, and therefore lower price. Histrionics from greens typically frame the problem of “interested parties” putting partial advice into the public sphere. But high prices benefit producers, whereas lower prices serve consumers. Ironically, greens and oil tycoons share interests here.
So, who are these commissioners who lack any grasp of basic economics, claiming to speak for the poor? Two of the panel, former MP David Laws and Dhara Vyas, hail from Energy U.K. – the industry lobbying outfit that the new Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, Emma Pinchbeck has recently slithered from. Blob. Louise Hellem is Chief Economist at the Remain-fanatic, pro-lockdown Confederation of British Industry. Blob. Professor of Energy Policy at UCL, Jim Watson boasts many roles in advising Parliament, governments and intergovernmental agencies on energy security and emissions reduction among other things. Blob. These people have produced precisely the report you would expect them to. But they were joined by Gillian Cooper, Executive Director of Partnerships and Advocacy at Citizens Advice, and Adam Scorer, Chief Executive at National Energy Action (NEA), the “national charity working to end fuel poverty”. These are organisations who we would expect to put the interests of their clients before lofty agendas.
Not so, apparently. “We must pursue the twin aims of clean heat and warm homes in lockstep,” said Scorer on X. And once again, this virtue signalling arrives with no evidence of having been tested by basic arithmetic. Despite NEA being supported by countless energy companies, charities and local and national governments, U.K. domestic energy prices have tripled thanks to green policies – and foreign and Covid policies, too – without comment from NEA.
It would seem that the British Establishment, of which Citizens Advice and NEA are a part, is as good as the ECF at spawning off-the-shelf blob-fronts, populated by individuals who are naturally happier occupying such positions than challenging the Establishment they are part of. Millions of people are facing cold and rising bills this winter, and the “Citizens Advice” to Government is apparently to close down more oil and gas fields and create more weather-dependent renewables without regard for reality.
“Successive governments had the chance to lower the U.K.’s dependence on fossil fuels and avoid some of the worst of these impacts,” says the report. But that is simply false Green Blob mythology. As has been explained in previous posts, retrofitting houses with insulation and other energy efficiency measures capable of significantly reducing energy usage are simply not cost-effective from the consumer’s point of view. Even at today’s high energy prices, they would never “pay for themselves” in any reasonable time frame. And there are simply no technologies that could provide so-called “clean heat” to consumers at grid scale in the event of a dark and windless day or week. The commission is basing its claims on fantasies.
And what of the hapless consumer? He is ensnared by the phantom institutions that represent the green ideology-addled British Establishment rather than his own interests while being fed the story of that Russia is to blame for his predicament. The U.K. could be producing its own gas and exporting plenty too, and an independent commission of energy experts could be pointing this out. But that possibility has been ruled inadmissible by the flood of phantom ‘civil society’ organisations that surround Westminster. The phantom “Commission”, convened by that swarm of spectres, adds to the chorus. At some point the public is going to discover for itself that U.K. energy and climate policy is far worse than any climate change, and that its interests have been harmed more by the British establishment than by Russia. That experience is likely to be very painful.
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“Tartan army don’t socially distance”.
Like those Scotland fans at the pub in Aberdeen when Scotland qualified… good for them anyway. Maybe we could learn something from them?
I notice stamping and clapping instead of singing and shouting at footy matches doesn’t seem to have caught on. I wonder if any Scots will take any notice of the nut jobs who said they shouldn’t go to Manchester?
“Bloomsbury staff must be vaccinated”.
Seriously, what jobs will be left for us second class citizens in apartheid Britain? lying government scum. Even plumbers who occasionally do a job in a care home have to comply if they want to keep their job, apparently.
Against Vaccine Passports is a worthy cause, but there seem to be precious few businesses in their directory. Early days.
Anyhow, such things could be a lifeline in apartheid Britain.
There’s a similar site called openforall with a lot of businesses on it, but there doesn’t seem to be a search function, so not easy to use.
“Covid secure wedding”.
I tell you now, we are no way “out of this” as long as such crap continues.
Followed by a socially distanced honeymoon?
I thought that was normal?
I’m due to attend a wedding soon but I’m having severe reservations. The couple aren’t too obsessive but other family members are. I’m absolutely through with all this crap so it’s going to be….interesting.
Go anyway, and when any of the vaxxers get a bit snarky, demand to know what they’re so afraid of if they’ve been vaccinated? If their vaccine works, then they’re at no risk from you, unless they don’t believe the vaccines work, in which case, why did they have a potentially cytotoxic poison injected into their veins?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Du2wm5nhTXY
Spike protein is very dangerous, it’s cytotoxic (Robert Malone, Steve Kirsch, Bret Weinstein)
“One in four Covid patients hospitalised while vitamin D deficient die”.
Tallies with what some of us have been saying for ages, and explains a lot – including why Norway and Finland appear to have done so well.
Sir Simon Stevens as Sancho Panza….his faith in Quixote’s imaginary world clearly wavering……..
So Saint Ardern got the Holy Snake Oil without pain. Amen, O Most Holy One.
Soon all Kiwis will have been jabbed, amen amen.
And then they will open their borders,will they?
Only to other jabberwocks, for sure,
And then we’ll see how effective the snake oils really are.
Or if the shots do snicker-snack!
Hope the cunt dies
Agree.
she got the saline one obvs – lets see if she keels over or gets some hideous rash all over her face within a week of getting it – can’t risk the people in charge of this awfulness not being alive and kicking to be in a position to exert their authority and keep that madness going until the job is done
The risk/benefit analysis is swinging round to favour giving the AstraZeneca jab to people in their 30s, according to MailOnline
Yeah, right. All my friends in their 50s who got covid, and there are quite a few, were all absolutely fine and no-one went near a hospital. If you are in your 30s and get covid, you will be fine and won’t go to hospital. If however you get a blood clot you might need medical assistance, I would suggest.
This is dangerous propaganda and dangerous manipulation of statistics, if ever I saw it.
I wonder if the lazy incompetent journos have read about the record levels of post vaccine mortality among young adults in Israel. Or even care.
Absolutely disgusting and shameful. Why would LS highlight this article except to expose its deceitfulness.
Precisely because it is deceitful?
I’m not upset at seeing this kind of article, except at the politics behind it.
Indeed, the stats they’re trying to push in that article are amazing. Looking at the comments it seems no one is being taken in by them. For a start the figures don’t take into account the comorbidities of the ICU/hospital intake.
Trying to make a case using data points of 1.5 vs 1.9 per 100,000 is crazy. Approx 9m 30-39yo in the U.K. so 1.5 equates to 135 people and 1.9 171 people.
How many of those 171 would be morbidly obese? How many of those 135 would be perfectly healthy?
As predicted in April.
Ah but now they claim they can treat the blood clots. So that’s all right then.
Andrew Lloyd Webber backing down in the face of mild bullying from the govt is disappointing if predictable. Businesses rebelled in Italy and I believe largely got away with it, and Italy is a much more heavily policed country than the UK.
As I am apparently as ‘dangerous as a drunk driver’ I don’t really care what this twat does.
Spineless weirdo
the obvs bought him off with some kind of a bung or something – way they have bought off the bulk of the UK population with their furlough, business grants [which will never be repaid] and eat out to help out etc
He wanted to help the government by using the ‘passports’ as a show of ‘defiance’ but obviously not go enough tickets to push that one
Fat old cuck without testicles is all mouth and no trousers? Say it isn’t so !!!!
The hand wringing about the Tartan Army from the Daily Fail was hilarious. More of this please !
Was quite interesting also that the Daily Fail is now trying to scare under 40’s into taking the shot and doing the Governments dirty work for them.
How can an increase from 0.8 to 1.9 every 100,000 cases be regarded as significant? I’m amazed they didn’t have a headline claiming over 100% increase !!!!
Number of healthy people, aged 0-40, who died within 28 days of a positive test in the past 10 weeks I hear you ask? 2 !!!!!
OMFG
Clownworld !!!
supposedly “healthy” people. As was broadcast to the world last weekend, just because you appear to be in peak fitness doesn’t mean there’s not something potentially fatally wrong with you.
Relative risk reduction is their playpen. The zombies are all in the playpen, unaware that there’s a world outside the barrier of lies.
Have “dipped in” to GB news on and off since it opened and perhaps I’ve been unlucky but I was expecting a albeit more moderate tv version of TR, but, oh dear, it comes over as a “all day breakfast tv” station featuring the usual “brain dead” content you would expect from daytime tv and the one show.
What do my fellow sceptics think?
Sadly I agree, had high hopes but the presenters talk over each other all the time and it’s just irritating to listen to and the content while less biased than that if other outkets us pretty much drivel.
Haven’t heard that they’ve had any of the alternative experts on regarding lockdowns or the vaccines, but then, as you say, I only dip in and then pretty quickly dip out.
Lozza Fox was on in the evening a couple of nights ago – good interview – made good case, plus Andrew Neill the other evening also made the case well and concluded with “so the public health emergency is clearly over” which was heartening, but otherwise would tend to agree – less biased than other MSM and the talking over each other and low production values are a bit irritating
Yes, I have occasionally hit an interesting bit, but overall it is pretty dire so far.
Agreed. I had to retune my Freeview recorder to get it and soon realised I needn’t have bothered
I’ve been similarly unimpressed so far. Their only plus point is to have proper interviews with people who’d never get invited onto other MSM news channels except to get shouted over and accused of being some sort of -ist.
Dan Miller’s piece in the CW is a must read, as ever.
The image about who is really in charge is also worth sharing….
best article I have read yet
I thought the country was already thoroughly trashed by the government and gullible arseholes.
“Brits in 30s now more risk of Covid than blood clots from AZ jab” – The risk/benefit analysis is swinging round to favour giving the AstraZeneca jab to people in their 30s, according to MailOnline”
There we go. Right on time.
Who could possibly have predicted that?
Just a basic observation. Nothing particularly new, but illustrative.
I’m sitting in a pub, waiting for a meal.
I was challenged about a mask on entry. Well – I guess they have to.
“Exempt”
But – then – ”Have you anything to prove it?”. A year on, FFS.
I restrained myself – I have every sympathy with serving staff. But I think that the steam from ears was noted.
Two things :
– The sheer absurdity of the interior mask regulations (putting on masks for a piss, otherwise no masks etc etc) are so absurd that anything with a brain would fall about laughing rather than observe them.
– The reactions of my companions : “Don’t make a fuss” as I (quietly) fumed.
We are truly fucked.
WEF twitter page promoting books the other week.
I wonder if Bloomsbury will be selective, under instructions what to publish.